January, 2012

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could use your BlackBerry to access Office 365? Well, now you can! Yesterday RIM officially announced that BlackBerry Business Cloud Services was available for Office 365 customers.

Key features:

• Wireless synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Online email, calendar and organizer data from a BlackBerry smartphone
  
• BlackBerry® Balance™ technology, which presents a unified view of work and personal content on a BlackBerry smartphone while keeping the content separate and secure
  
• An intuitive web-based console for IT administrators to provision, manage and secure BlackBerry smartphones from anywhere
  
• Online access to employee self-service smartphone security functions, allowing users to easily reset a device password or remotely lock or wipe a device in the event of loss or theft

The service is available today in over 50 countries. Customers can go to www.blackberry.com/cloudservices to get started.

For schools, colleges and universities looking for a powerful tool for their students to help them better collaborate on group projects, SkyDrive and Office Web Apps is the ideal solution.

Those looking for a web based solution often think about Google Docs. While tools such as this may work well for simple tasks, they may not have the features you need to create professional documents. You can also have formatting issues when you move between these apps and Office.

You could also use a “file cloud” like Dropbox, but these tools aren’t really designed for collaboration, and they don’t let you work simultaneously with others on a document.

Faced with these choices, many people decide to work independently and email files back and forth. This makes it hard to know if you’re working on the latest version of a document, and sometimes you can run into attachment limits. It also can take a lot of time to piece together different Word documents or PowerPoint presentations from multiple email messages.

With SkyDrive, you have a better option. Students can store all their files in one place, so everyone can access the latest version. They can also use free Office Web Apps for basic editing from any browser.

More specifically, SkyDrive and Office Web Apps allow you to more easily manage the following:

• SkyDrive and the Word Web App let students work together on the same document from different computers
• Let everyone in the group work on the same presentation file – even at the same time – from any PC, Mac, or just a web browser with the PowerPoint Web App
• Easily share the presentation and let everyone see it the way it was intended to look by uploading the file to SkyDrive and viewing it with the PowerPoint Web App
• Access and collaborate on files in almost any web browser even if Office isn't installed on that computer
• Spend more time actually working on a spreadsheet or model and less time reformatting or organizing it
• With OneNote, keep notes synced across all of your computers and even your Windows Phone or iPhone
• Easily open and print your documents from the library or computer lab at school

SkyDrive and Office Web Apps make sharing easy. Learn more about how your students can start embracing these powerful tools, also offered as part of Live@edu, today.

By Tim Bush

Reflecting on a great BETT, thanks to everyone who stopped by our stand, one of the most popular sessions within our Theatre Stand was the School in a Box presentation delivered by our Schools Business Managers, Sean O’Shea and Mark Reynolds.

Delivered in their unique and entertaining way, both Sean and Mark did an amazing job at presenting a new concept for ICT delivery within schools that supports the idea that there is an empowering alternative for school leaders in how they use IT, and the cloud in particular, to deliver next generation learning experiences.

If you missed their session, or want a copy of their slides to share with colleagues, the full deck can be viewed/downloaded below.

A copy of the eBook that stimulated the School in a Box movement can also be downloaded below.

If you would like to learn more about School in a Box, Nviron, in conjunction with Microsoft, are running an a free half day seminar in Cheshire (J11, M56) on 6^th February focusing on Cloud computing in Education. With a focus on Office 365, Live@edu and Microsoft Hyper-V^™ & System Center, this event offers a unique opportunity to build on the content shared via the presentation and eBook above and learn how School in a Box can help transform how you think about the delivery and consumption of ICT in your school.

Location and registration details are available via the Nviron website.

Yes, it’s finally time to pack away the Christmas decorations, reset the alarm clock for work and return to normality, but there’s no need to be disheartened because it’s almost time for BETT! (Cue rapturous applause…)

Come and see where it’s really happening, over on the public cloud pod at the Microsoft stand, D30 & D40! Amongst many other spectacular presentations, and demo pods, we’ll be showing off the latest and greatest technology Microsoft has to offer including Microsoft Office 365 for education, Live@edu, and more!

Find out how you can harness the power of “the cloud” to provide the most awesome and up to date technology to your students and staff and save your institution money at the same time! 

So, spare a few minutes and prepare to have your negative nephological notions nuked by our team of experts – you can also put your name down to get one of our free deployment and marketing kits (while stocks last!).

Find out more about Microsoft’s presence at BETT 2012 over at our microsite!